How to repair Datebook.d​at and Address.da​t files on a PC?

Question

Hi again,
Waiting I can install again the Palm Desktop on my new laptop (see my previous post), I tried to recover my data from Datebook.dat and Address.dat files on another machine (also PC XP Pro). The Palm Desktop program installation went well but:
Any data older than 2 years (address and agenda) are correctly read, but the newer ones look empty. Actually I already changed of laptop 2 years ago, and I had to move the Datebook and Address files to be able to open them with the Palm Desktop. After that I had no problem and all my data were read (old and new ones).
I opened the Datebook.dat and Address.dat files with the PC notepad, and I could see some data from 2 weeks ago, thus they are not lost. So I guess the old and new records are not exactly formatted in the same way, and for a strange reason, the Palm Desktop cannot read the newer ones.
I forgot to tell you my Palm 515 is dead (so I cannot Hotsync with the new laptop), and my former laptop HDD crashed (so I cannot run the Palm Desktop on it anymore).
That's why I'm looking for a PC program able to "repair" Datebook.dat and Address.dat files. I read on several forums that DBscan and DBfix could do the job for me, but they run on PalmOS, and I don't have a Palm anymore...
A program extracting the data to a CVS file could be OK (even if I have to spend some time on Excel later on), but it must understand the old and the new records.
Thanks for any help you could bring me.
Christophe
Post relates to: Palm m515

Answer 1

Have you tried the following procedure?
You can recover the data from your user folder provided you have only sync'ed once with the PC when you discovered the data missing. When you sync to the PC there are files created for each PIM category in your user folder. For Example; datebook.dat or datebook (Depending on the version of Palm Desktop) and datebook.bak. Using 6.2 the file names are .mdb and mdb.bak. For 6.2, the files are located in the username folder in PalmOSdesktop in my documents.
The files are named .dat and .bak. When you sync, the current data is stored in .dat. The next time you sync the data in the .dat file is copied to the .bak file. You can rename the .dat to .old. then rename the .bak to .dat. If the data in the .bak file is intact, it will now be in palm desktop when you reopen Palm desktop. I have included a link to show you how to find the userfolder on the PC.
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=26674
Here is another link regarding data loss;
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=39503
The best way to backup your data is to use the export feature in Palm Desktop. Make a new folder on the PC desktop named Palm Desktop Backup data. Next, select the category you want to export. You will get a window that asks where you want to save the file, save in the folder created on the desktop. There is a button that allows you to select currently selected record or all, select all. If you don't select all, then only the record highlighted is exported. You will then need to name the file for export, I suggest the name of the category, eg: datebook (With current date). Do this for all critical data in each category. With the data exported to the folder on the PC desktop, you can save this data to a flash drive, external hard drive or a CD-RW. With this method you will have your data in a seperate place than Palm desktop and the device. If you "Lose" data again, you can import the data back into palm desktop.
Make sure that when you make changes in palm desktop or the device to export the data to the folder created for the backup.
Here is a link for other options for backing up your data;
http://www.palm.com/cgi-bin/cso_kbURL.cgi?ID=28751
For reference purposes, click on the following link for the support page for your device on the kb.palm.com webpage.
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/NUA/launchTab.asp?t=home&f​n=m-series&mn=m515&cn=unlocked
There are links on the page to the user guide, troubleshooting, how to's, downloads, etc.
Post relates to: Palm i705